The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-05-14

in impartiDg his spirit and life to the
kingdom within,-in making that king
dom what God would have it to be,
ceases at death. If in any soul that
kingdom is not ruled by his spirit, and
does not partake of his life before death,
Christ can do no more for it, it must |
remain in darkness and rebellion for
ever. Such is the old school side of the
Andover question, of the question Of So
called future probation.
Observe now how this position ig
noTes the truth of our text,-the truth
of the absolute spirituality of Gods
kingdom! See how it projects mate
rial conceptions into the thoughts of
that kingdom. See how it tries to draw
an absolute physical dead line through
the kingdom of God. See how it seeks
to make of death wall of iron, that
arrests all moral progress, and stops the
workings of all spiritual forces. On
this side Of that wall you can hear
Christ, receive bis truth and repent of
your sins. On the other side of that
wall you cannot hear Christ, receive his
truth nor repent Of your sins. What
an obliviousness to the great, funda-
mental thought of the gospel that the
kingdom of God is within you What
an attempt to materialize this king
dom and govern it by physical laws,
and run it by mechanical forces! Those
who hold this view. are but little re-
moved from those old Pharisees who
thought that the kingdom of heaven
cometh with observation and were say
ing, Lo here, Lo there.
For what is death Purely and ab-
solutely a physical event. This is ad-
mitted on all hands. Death arrests
the life of the body, but it does not ar
rest the life of the soul. Death stops
the pulsations Of the heart, but it does
not stop the emotions Of the spirit.
Death stops the breath, but it does not
stop thought. Death locks up the brain,
but it does not lock up the mind. Who
ever believes in the immortality of the
soul admits all this. Death, therefore,
is purely physical event. 1t is mat
ter of matter, not matter of mind. 1t
is physiological not psychological. 1t
> is of the body, not Of the soul. 1t be-
longs to the world without, not to the
world within. 1t touches not one spir-
itual reality. It interferes with nc
spiritual law, and arrests or controls
not one spiritual or moral force.
Why, then, say that the soul cannot
repent after death Death knows moth
ing about these movements of the soul
They are not within the dominion OF
death. Why, then, say that death stops
the movement of the soul in its re-
pentance toward God? Why say that
the impenitent spirits of the dead can.
not repent? Suppose l say that that
man has lost au arm and he cannot re-
pent. That man has an eye out and hi
cannot repent. That man has leg
: off and so he cannot repent. You smile
at that. But so far as it goes, that is
: death. 1t is the death of that arm
that eye, that leg, and differs from the
death of the whole body only in degree,
1t is just as reasonable, therefore, to
say that because man has lost his arm
has an eye out or leg off, ne cannot
repent, as it is to say that he cannot
: repent after the death of his body. Save
: in degree one is no more absurd than
the other, for the same principle OBJ
tains in both. They both proceed on
the principle that bodily death changes
the. constitution of the soul-destroys
or renders its powers imperative, rem
ders it deaf to the call of truth, dead
to the movements of love and puts the
will into wise that no power of God OF
man can open. They both proceed on
the principle that the world within de-
ponds on the world without, and that il
you change the SOULS environment you
change its very nature and render it in
capable of its own normal action.
You see, therefore, how this idea of
no repentance after death runs counter
to the fundamental conception of
Christianity, and destroys the Spiritu-
ality of Christ's kingdom. 1t is, in fact,
! one of the worst forms of materialism,
for it is clothed in the garments of a
J professed Christian spiritualism. 1t
holds that the kingdom of God is spir-
itual and yet teaches that purely ply
steal event can stop all the workings of
that kingdom and render all the forces
of the Infinite imperative to the saliva
ton of a soul. Never was there great
er tumble of thought. 1t is like hold
ing that activity of God depends upon
the stability of material phenomena. 1
should as soon think that God is dead,
at the perishing of wild flower, as to
think that single activity of the hui
man mind is arrested, or possibility of
the human soul destroyed, at the death
of the body. For the moment you say
this, the tendency of your thoughts to-
ward materialism, and the denial OF
mans Immortality. If a man is inn
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